Today, I was a bit bored as it was my last day of vacation (oh, how nice those two weeks were), so I decided to break out my two older computers and retool them. Well, maybe not retool them per se, but rather, move them to a new case and have some fun with it.
So, MAME & SERVER were moved out of their boring beige boxes into a brand-spanking-new cardboard magazine box. Yes - a magazine box. It's about 16 inches long, 9 inches wide, and 12 inches high. So, we're not talking much space here (in fact, I just uploaded a picture so you can try and visualize what I'm talking about). Each computer is mounted to one of the long sides via zip ties. The hard drives are mounted to the bottom via zip ties, and the power supplies are mounted on the "width" side above the handles. It's a very tight fit (obviously), but it was a fun little project.
I really only ran into one problem while mounting them - the realization after the fact that I needed power switches to turn them on. The power jumpers were at the very bottom of each motherboard, and with the way they were mounted, I was unable to read the writing on the board, so very slowly, I tried each combination of 2. Then, on the ECS, I had to reverse the switch and try each combination over again. But, the switches are now installed (cannabalized from the two beige boxes) and both computers are up and running.
The computers have been rechristened PROMETHEUS and EPIMETHEUS - brothers from the Legend of Prometheus and Pandora's Box (get it - Pandora's Box?). Both will be stored in my closet running Folding@Home - a project I recently took up - at first to benchmark my new computer and then to gain in the ranks of the [H]orde at [H]ardOCP. I just started a few days ago, but I'm moving on up - PROMETHEUS and EPIMETHEUS will be boxes 4 & 5 I'll have running F@H here in the house. Other machines include ARION (my new computer), PEGASUS (my dad's computer I just built him - which is unfortunately not on 24/7) and BEHEMOTH (my old computer that ARION replaced).
So hopefully with these five computers, I'll move up the [H]orde charts a bit faster (though PROMETHEUS and EPIMETHEUS will move quite a bit slower because they have limited processing power). Greg has offered to donate two of his old motherboards with CPUs and RAM though, so Pandora's Box may be rebuilt in a custom wood box with a motherboard on each side - all hinged for easy access. I figure I can throw in four wireless networking cards and then I can store Pandora's Box anywhere in the house where there's power.
And, believe it or not, I've actually thought about building a farm of computers for a while now - I just never had the spare parts. Unfortunately, MAME & SERVER were destroyed in the process - but since neither was being put to good use, it's not such a shame. Pictures of Pandora's "cardboard" Box will follow soon.
URL: The Legend of Prometheus and Pandora's Box
So, MAME & SERVER were moved out of their boring beige boxes into a brand-spanking-new cardboard magazine box. Yes - a magazine box. It's about 16 inches long, 9 inches wide, and 12 inches high. So, we're not talking much space here (in fact, I just uploaded a picture so you can try and visualize what I'm talking about). Each computer is mounted to one of the long sides via zip ties. The hard drives are mounted to the bottom via zip ties, and the power supplies are mounted on the "width" side above the handles. It's a very tight fit (obviously), but it was a fun little project.
I really only ran into one problem while mounting them - the realization after the fact that I needed power switches to turn them on. The power jumpers were at the very bottom of each motherboard, and with the way they were mounted, I was unable to read the writing on the board, so very slowly, I tried each combination of 2. Then, on the ECS, I had to reverse the switch and try each combination over again. But, the switches are now installed (cannabalized from the two beige boxes) and both computers are up and running.
The computers have been rechristened PROMETHEUS and EPIMETHEUS - brothers from the Legend of Prometheus and Pandora's Box (get it - Pandora's Box?). Both will be stored in my closet running Folding@Home - a project I recently took up - at first to benchmark my new computer and then to gain in the ranks of the [H]orde at [H]ardOCP. I just started a few days ago, but I'm moving on up - PROMETHEUS and EPIMETHEUS will be boxes 4 & 5 I'll have running F@H here in the house. Other machines include ARION (my new computer), PEGASUS (my dad's computer I just built him - which is unfortunately not on 24/7) and BEHEMOTH (my old computer that ARION replaced).
So hopefully with these five computers, I'll move up the [H]orde charts a bit faster (though PROMETHEUS and EPIMETHEUS will move quite a bit slower because they have limited processing power). Greg has offered to donate two of his old motherboards with CPUs and RAM though, so Pandora's Box may be rebuilt in a custom wood box with a motherboard on each side - all hinged for easy access. I figure I can throw in four wireless networking cards and then I can store Pandora's Box anywhere in the house where there's power.
And, believe it or not, I've actually thought about building a farm of computers for a while now - I just never had the spare parts. Unfortunately, MAME & SERVER were destroyed in the process - but since neither was being put to good use, it's not such a shame. Pictures of Pandora's "cardboard" Box will follow soon.
URL: The Legend of Prometheus and Pandora's Box
posted by Blake | 22:46
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